Record-breaking sailing star Dame Ellen MacArthur has announced she will never compete in a yacht race again. 
 
The 33-year-old, who broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2005, said she was instead planning to pour her energies into helping to save the planet.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4, Dame Ellen said a trip to the Atlantic island of South Georgia had made her acutely aware of the challenges facing the environment.

At sea, every resource is precious and must be used carefully, she said - even something as commonplace as kitchen roll is eked out piece by piece - and this had given her a different view on the way mankind uses the earth's resources.

"I never thought that anything in my life could eclipse sailing, I didn't think it was possible but after being in South Georgia, after learning these lessons I suppose, and the more I researched into it, the more frightened I got and that has really scared me to the point that I can't go back to Sea and go around the World again because this really matters," she said.

Dame Ellen said told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, in an episode to be screened on Sunday, that she would continue to sail for pleasure and to raise money for good causes.

"I still sail, I love sailing, I'll still sail for pleasure, I sail for charity - the Ellen MacArthur Trust with kids with cancer, leukaemia, but as long as this challenge is there to be communicated, will I invest four years of my life to sailing round the world - no," she said.

"This new understanding for me has become far more important."